About
I'm a software engineer, writer, and researcher. I write to help people in tech feel seen.
I often struggle with what to put here, because I don't have a linear career arc that fits into a short elevator pitch. I majored in Music Education, and spent the first few years after college graduation teaching music and art to elementary students in Chicago and Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. I had always been interested in web development, but I decided to turn it into a career in 2015. After a tech bootcamp and an apprenticeship, I became a front-end focused software engineer.
Since then, I have been an Engineering Manager, an open source maintainer for a widely-used data visualization tool, a design system engineer, and an accessibility advocate. Most recently, I had a short stint as a CTO for a legal tech startup, helping a founder turn an idea into a real product. I think people are the most important part of any tech product, and helping the people around me to understand technology is my passion and guiding principle.
Writing & research
When I first became a software engineer, a mentor told me that "all technical problems are people problems". Today, I think I would rephrase that to say that "all technical problems are systems problems". So, I write about systems problems, and the people who are affected by them. I want to help people in tech feel seen, and to help people outside of tech understand the systems that shape our work and our lives.
An astonishing number of times, I found research or data about something I thought I was making up. That moment of recognition, “Oh. That's what I've been experiencing. I thought it was just me,” is what I want to create for readers of my newsletter, Performance Anxiety.
Having an engineering background means I can build tools to follow these questions, which is how I've ended up studying both the language on company careers pages and the odds of building an audience on Ravelry. Sometimes I start with something smaller in Did You See That?, where I put something weird from work, tech, or culture in front of readers and ask them to help me figure out what we're looking at.
Work with me
I’m interested in writing commissions and opportunities to expand on my existing research. I’m also available for talks and podcast interviews.
I’m open to software engineering and technical leadership opportunities, too. If you have something in mind, I’d love to hear from you.
Send an email